[netarchie]

congrats Guna, I am sure you will enjoy the City AT and will get used to pretty quickly.

[drpullockaran]

Originally Posted by Guna

I have liked lot of aspects of AT so far but I miss the 1 to 1 relationship the revs have with resulting speed in a given gear. The entire mapping from the mind has to get adjusted to the 'blackbox' approach of the auto.[/list]

I think you need to use the paddle shift a lot more till you get used to the blackbox taking over. Anyways when you are racing you should be using paddle shift in my opinion.

[Guna]

Thanks everyone for the wishes!
I was waiting to get fog lamps, Aollys etc before taking pictures. But that didn't happen, so I am going ahead with the initial impressions:

Model: ANHC-S A/T, Silver
On road price: Rs. 1043356 in Bangalore
Dealer: Magnam Honda on kanakapura road
Waiting Period: 1 week

Exterior:
Styling of ANHC has been a matter of animated bedate , at least on Team-bhp. It is a bold design and even 'disruptive' design which is bound to evoke sharp reactions, both positive and negative.

I find the fit and finish, panel gaps and the paint quality to be of very good quality. The plastics used for the beading around the window glass do have matt finish compared to those used on NHC, which make it look a bit dull in my opinion. Touch of chrome would have made it to look more upmarket.

Among the things I wished they had provided on exterior (fogs, alloys...) are the lining inside the fenders to cover the bare metals.

You can't open the boot lid with the remote which is another feature I was used to in my previous car (Fusion)

[Guna]

Interior:
Design:
Design and materials of interior is a mixed bag. I find the fit and finish to be of top notch but the colour and textue of the plastics make them little dull. Beige used is more towards gray and the finish could have been little more glossier.
There are clever touches to the design and execution and eventually the interor design starts to apeal in a subtle way.
The floor carpet is dark gray unlike the NHC which had beige colour.
doors feel light and dont give a feeling of solidity.

Space:
Leg room at both front and rear seat is good. Shoulder width is not very generous and it is only good for 4 adults and a kid, as in the case of many cars in the segment. It is extremely easy to find a good driving positon with tilt steering and height adjustable seat.

View:
View from the driver's seat is good without prominent blind spots. Of course the rear visibility is poor with high boot lid and thickish C pillars.
Raising waistline makes the window small towads the rear and makes it less airy ifr the occupents in the rear seats.

AC:
Cooling is fairly fast for the people in te front seats. I am told that it does take long time to cool the rear passenger area. The air vents follow the curvature of the dash and somewhat point upwards. This may make them less effective.

Sound Insulation:
I have not noticed any road/tire noise so far. But the outide noise creeps to fair extent. Engine noise is not very intrussive.

Equipements :
We know that ANHC doesnt have ACC. I am OK with that. However I feel the control used for 'recirculation mode' could have been an electronic one.
There is just one light in the cabin. There are no goggle holder.
There is only one lighter/power socket.
The USB option for the music works pretty well.
The pockets and storage options present are fairly adequate.

[Guna]

Performance:
My references are the cars I have driven earlier (Fusion, Forester) and realatively ANHC AT feels more livelier and nimble in the city.
The engine is little slow to respond at low RPMs just like the Fusion. However it is extremely smooth and refined.

D Mode:
I was driving in the D mode for the first couple of days. This is a mode where the gear shifting in carried out by the system as you drive, based on what the system thinks is the optimum gear for the given condition (in terms of engine speed, torque demand etc). But it gives an option to override this using the paddleshift. I started using the 'upshift' paddle as the car was staying in a particular gear for little longer to my liking. But the auto would take over if there is any drastic moves (such as rushing the accelerator or breaking)
D mode is very smooth and many times you won't notice the gear changes. Up-shiftings are partculalry smooth and only way you notice the chnage is whenever the engine realxes after switching to a higher gear. The only time you feel it is jerky is when you kickdown the accelerator and the auto shiftsdown to deliver for the higher torque/acceleration demand. This can happen when you are not expecting it and it can be litle irritaing. But one should get used to the pattern and be able to predict this.

S Mode:
This is a mode where the gear shifting happens at the threshold rather then an optimal level of RPMs. This allows using the paddleshifts with greater control.

Only sight issue in using the paddleshift is if tou have to operate it while taking a sharp turn. using paddleshift forces you to hold the steering at '9 &3' positon and it can be little straining for the arms. But again one should be able to overcome this over period of time.

Steering:
While it doesnt have the feel of a hydraulic power steering the Fusion has which I personally liked, it feels responsive and nimble. There is a strong feedback while cornering which my NHC lacked.

Ride:
Ride is on the firm side but it is not jarring.

Ground Clearence:
When driven alone, the road humps are not a problem. But when loaded with people it calls for some caution.

FE:
The display has been indicating an avergae of 9.7 kmpl (with AC) in the Bangalore traffic but my calculation using the tank to tank method has given around 9.2kmpl for the first time. The built in system displays the live FE at any instant as well as the average. This really helps to correct the driving habit if one cares for FE.

I have not got an opportunity to take it on highways. I shall come up with an update soon on that.

[hell boy]

Keep her neat and clean alway's.
The colour look's realy good.

[sandeep_vgl]

Congrats on your new purchase and by the way, the photos are really wonderful. looks cool !!!

[Guna]

Originally Posted by suneel

Any plans of modifications? Tints, wheels etc.

I have put light tint 3M films. I will be going for the fog lamps, alloys and the door moulds

Originally Posted by loving_alaap

Well in one of the post, people are feeling the gear change; are you also feeling the same in your AT?

Yes you can feel the gear change as the engine relaxes every time it upshifts but it is not really jerkey. Only time it feels little jerkey is when it downshifts in a kickdown mode.

Thanks @sandeep and hell boy

[gaurav911]

Congrats Guna. Your car looks superb.
The fuel efficiency you are getting is pretty decent for an automatic.
It would be more than satisfactory, if u can maintain a FE of anything over 9!
Enjoy driving and paddle shifting

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Guna

Ride:
Ride is on the firm side but it is not jarring.

How would you compare it to the Fusion?

[cvvikram]

Awesome pics bro, congrats for the beauty!

Drive Safely.

[abhi1309]

Nice pictures you got there!

[f1fan]

Nice Color. The biege interiors also look good. Drive safe and enjoy your ride.
Had one question: Any compatibility issues with the USB drive as I read somewhere that some folks had some issues of files not being recognized with the same.

[narayan]

Congrats Guna

FE seems to be quite good for an auto in Blore traffic conditions. I suppose driving ONLY on D mode might give you better FE

[netarchie]

Hi Guna, did your car come with a pastic protection under the engine bay? as it was supposed to be included in the 2009 production models.